Digital Marketing Bootcamp: 8 Reasons to Choose Marketing Automation

When it comes to marketing, do you ever feel like you're trying to be in 30 places at once? Do you feel like you learn about a new channel or platform that NEEDS your attention every week? Marketing successfully can be a massive undertaking, but that's because it works. It's worth the time and effort because if you do it well and stay consistent, it pays off. But what do you do when you already feel like you're drowning?

You turn to automation. And today, there's an app or program for every over-scheduled, overwhelmed marketer out there.

Here are 8 reasons to automate your marketing:

Consistency - It can be a massive struggle to stay consistent when you're posting in real time. If you're trying to post twice a day, but you have a few crazy days where you're focusing on other projects, it can be easy to fall off your posting schedule. Automation means you can batch your posts - like putting all of the upcoming week's posts together at once. It makes it look like you're super active on your social media, even if you go totally off the grid for a week.

More time for creativity - Half the battle of staying consistent in your marketing lies within the process. There's the logging on, typing up, choosing who sees your message, proofing, etc. Overall, it might not take much time. But when you're bogged down with other things, it can be a challenge to get to it. If you automate your marketing, you take that annoying "process" step out of the equation, and focus more on the actual creative marketing component.

Scalability - If you're a small business owner or you manage a team, you're likely wearing plenty of hats. You know marketing is vital, but maybe you don't have the time or resources to hire a dedicated marketing professional (or team) to get the job done. Automation makes it easier to get your message out, on time, across multiple platforms.

Big-picture focus - When you're working on day-to-day marketing, it's easy to get lost in the hustle. If you have to put together an email for your subscribers, post on each of your social media channels and publish a blog post today, you're probably going to feel overwhelmed. It'll be tough to get everything done on time, let alone have time left over to strategize and plan. Automation forces you to look ahead. It might only be a week or a couple days, but it takes away that demand to just get something out there, whatever it might be. Automation frees up your time and headspace to plan strategically.

Show up in new spaces - If you're stressed and overloaded, posting regularly on Facebook might be all you have the bandwidth for. But there are automation apps and sites for Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and so much more. Social media sites you might not have had time for in the past is a lot more accessible when you can schedule posts ahead of time, whenever you actually have the time. One point to keep in mind, though: You don't necessarily want to share the same thing on every social channel, because the audiences are going to vary. Facebook fosters more direct conversation with your followers, Instagram is ideal for more visual aspects of your business, Pinterest is great for sharing your how-to blog posts, and so on. So spend a little time figuring out what works on each medium, and use that to tweak your message.

Consistent branding - Not only can you show up on more platforms, but you can arrive with more cohesive branding. Automation brings a two-part bonus for your branding. First, it helps you carve out the time and energy you would need to get focused on your image and message. And second, it allows you to share that branding across multiple platforms. That way, if people follow you on multiple sites, they see your specific branding being reinforced again and again.

Automatic up-selling - This is one of those awesome features that can really boost your sales. Auto-responding gives you the chance to offer personal recommendations to your clients. For example, if someone buys something off your site, you can have an email automated to send them related products they might be interested in. Or if they sign up for a freebie or e-book, you can email them about your other services. It helps you give your clients personal recommendations instantly, and improve their experience.

Reporting - Marketing automation programs offer another major benefit: Data. If you're using an email marketing program or social media schedulers, pretty much all of them are going to give you some kind of analytics. Those reports can be extremely beneficial for future marketing campaigns. You can see what works, what's not, and what's getting the most engagement.